Mariposa

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The specialist magazines describe them, quite rightly, as the doyens of indie music. They founded a genre of which they are the leading exponents, they’ve recorded weird albums, launched improbable projects, mixed The Beatles with Bud Spencer & Terence Hill. They’ve played custom-prepared pianos, teapots and satellite dishes, they revived the wearing of costumes on the music stage, they raised Alessandro Fiori (one of the top contemporary Italian singer-songwriters) and Enrico Gabrielli (arranger of international stature, currently one of the standard-bearers of Italian music in the States) among their number. They’ve done everything. And that everything includes a little extra.

They are Mariposa, seven real artists of the musical stave and now, with their latest work, Semmai Semiplay, they have truly created one of their masterpieces. Because this album is so intense, multi-layered and, above all, lovely (in the sense of pleasant listening) that no lover of quality music should miss this opportunity. Today they start off from Viper Club in Florence on their tour. Their latest work is so rich in ideas that not even a degree dissertation could cover them all, so we’ve asked the band’s keyboard player, Michele Orvieti, to tell us all about it.

It should be said that your previous work was for connoisseurs and was not so approachable as this Semmai Semiplay which, albeit a complex work, is a lot less complicated than some of your other albums. How did you develop such a diverse record?

You spend years removing "the unknowable" from the artistic process. Then, when you tackle it head on, "the unknowable" emerges with all its force. By this I mean that Semmai Semiplay developed in an almost inexplicable way. But of one thing we were sure from the very beginning: the material was very different from our previous stuff. It was less connected with the song format, it focused more on rhythm in all its facets. Very direct, perhaps even a bit brazen.

You're one of the last bands to use stage costumes. So you admit that your look is important to you?

When we're on stage we look very much like a post-freak commune in a hypothetical New York in the early Eighties (therefore way outside the time limit). Our charismatic leader, Alessandro Fiori, has a taste for the atrocious and he enjoys experimenting. Sometimes he even wears women's clothes. Enrico Gabrielli, too, is a great eccentric; his interests focus more on bright colors and matching color schemes. Gianluca Giusti has often worn a cloak on stage which once belonged to the great Rick Wakeman in his heyday. I stick to my look of a maitre d' in a shady dive (but with great dignity): white shirt, bowtie and red suspenders. Diversity, versatility and a real urge to play with shapes and colors, like kids.

I found your work has a very international sound. Did Enrico (Gabrielli's) experience in the States with Calibro 35 influence you in some way?

Enrico has always been a huge influence on the Mariposa sound. He infuses the band with his ability to see the bigger picture and his great taste for effective, deep arrangements. Enrico is a true composer, but these traits of his precede his work with Calibro 35 and his transatlantic travel. It's something he's had in him since he was a boy. He absorbs everything he experiences and reformulates it, musically, in a very natural way: things he hears, journeys, conversations, things he reads. And I can testify to that because I've known him since we went to school together at the Liceo Musicale in Arezzo, a high school focused on music studies.

A cheeky question: once upon a time music artists dreamed of signing up with a major label and achieving the kind of success that allowed you to support yourself with just your music. Now that the majors are apparently no longer able to guarantee all that, what does a musician dream of?

"Finding the right compromise between rent and square feet", in the words of the opening track on Semmai Semiplay. Establishing a balance between artistic ambition and practical necessities. The perfect formula, which perhaps doesn't actually exist, for transferring purely musical ideas into reality, being aware of one's own limits and those of the music industry's. Great independence, but also the ability to find reliable contacts; the urge to work with others, to put your career on the line, to try new solutions. Aim for gradual growth and don't believe in a sudden explosion. In any event, your aim is still to live by music. But it would be more accurate to say "living by all kinds of music", meaning the possibility of expanding your artistic potential in all directions so it's not limited to just albums and live performances. There's a world of possibilities out there.